Soccer|New Candidate and Palace Intrigue Shake Up U.S. Soccer Election

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New Candidate and Palace Intrigue Shake Up U.S. Soccer Election

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Carlos Cordeiro, U.S. Soccer’s executive vice president, entered the race for the federation’s presidency on Wednesday. “We’ve done exceedingly well, but we’ve plateaued,” he said. “And to take it to the next level, we need a new form of leadership.”CreditCreditRebecca Blackwell/Associated Press

In the surest sign yet that Sunil Gulati, the United States Soccer Federation president for the past 12 years, is in for a bruising re-election fight, his deputy Carlos Cordeiro announced Wednesday night that he would enter the race to replace his longtime friend.

The entry of Cordeiro — a former Goldman Sachs executive who currently serves as U.S. Soccer’s executive vice president — into an increasingly crowded field of presidential candidates represents one of the most significant challenges yet to Gulati, whose stewardship of American soccer has been under fire since the United States men’s national team missed out on qualification for the 2018 World Cup last month.

But Cordeiro’s candidacy, or that of anyone already in the race or pondering a challenge, may soon be overshadowed by moves inside U.S. Soccer’s board of directors to limit, and possibly even redefine, the power of the presidency before the federation’s various constituencies gather in February in Orlando, Fla., to pick a leader.

Cordeiro said his decision to run was not a reaction to the national team’s failure to qualify for the World Cup, but an aspiration he had suppressed for several years. It also is a bid for stability, he said, amid calls from inside and outside U.S. Soccer to drastically remake the federation.

“What we need in the federation is not to blow it up,” Cordeiro said in a telephone interview on Thursday. “We’re not trying to create a revolution here, as some people are perhaps advocating. I think we’ve plateaued. We’ve done exceedingly well, but we’ve plateaued.”

He added, “And to take it to the next level, we need a new form of leadership.”

Cordeiro’s platform includes a call for increased transparency within U.S. Soccer and a separation between the federation’s financial and soccer responsibilities. He also pledged to follow through on the push to host the 2026 World Cup in the United States and begin a new one to win the rights to the 2027 Women’s World Cup.

He is merely the latest — but perhaps the best connected — candidate to enter the race, joining a field that includes Steven H. Gans, a Boston lawyer who was the first to announce a challenge to Gulati, and Eric Wynalda, the Fox Sports analyst and former national team striker. And while those are perhaps the outsiders that Cordeiro referred to when he mentioned people who want a revolution at U.S. Soccer, Cordeiro himself is best described as the consummate insider.

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Sunil Gulati, the president of U.S. Soccer, has not said if he will run for a fourth term.CreditKena Betancur/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Cordeiro has been a member of the federation’s board of directors since 2006, serving as treasurer at one point, and last year he was elected to a four-year term as executive vice president. Cordeiro frequently travels with Gulati on his overseas trips, and he was part of U.S. Soccer’s failed bid to host the 2022 World Cup.

He was careful to emphasize that his candidacy was not a rebuke of Gulati personally or of the job Gulati has done over the past decade. U.S. Soccer’s influence globally and its revenues have grown exponentially during Gulati’s tenure as president, and he has overseen significant investments in player development. But it is difficult not to see implicit criticism of Gulati in Cordeiro’s call for increased transparency, as well as in his belief that the role of president should be more limited.

“Don’t confuse being president of U.S. Soccer with being C.E.O. of U.S. Soccer,” Cordeiro said, alluding to the role held since 2000 by Dan Flynn, a salaried executive in charge of the federation’s day-to-day affairs. The unpaid job of the president, Cordeiro said, is “nonexecutive, meaning it is not full time.” He called it “the equivalent of the chairman of the board.”

The U.S. Soccer board apparently sees the post the same way, and in recent weeks, several of its members have mounted an effort to ensure that the next president hews more closely to the definition of the role as laid out in the organization’s bylaws, and by Cordeiro’s platform. It is unclear how exactly the duties of the position would be circumscribed, or if the board is merely signaling that it plans more rigid limits on the portfolio and authority of the president — whoever that is — in the future. But the effect could be that future U.S. Soccer presidents may find themselves occupying a significantly less powerful position than the one Gulati currently holds.

Gulati declined to comment for this article, and he has not announced whether he will run for re-election to a fourth term. His current term, which included a victory in the Women’s World Cup in 2015, nonetheless has been marred not only by the failed World Cup qualification by the men’s team but also by a bitter (and expensive) fight with the women’s national team over pay equity and working conditions and a federal lawsuit filed against U.S. Soccer by the North American Soccer League.

Still, Cordeiro decried as “absolute garbage” whispers that he or any other board members had pressed Gulati to step aside.

Candidates have until Dec. 12 to announce their intention to run and submit the required nominations to become eligible. Both Cordeiro and Gans say they have the required support lined up.

The winner of the presidential election will immediately face a number of important decisions. First and foremost will be to begin creating a structure to choose a new men’s national team coach to lay the groundwork for the 2022 World Cup qualifying cycle. Then, in March, U.S. Soccer and its partners Mexico and Canada must submit to FIFA their completed bid to host the 2026 World Cup in North America. FIFA will vote for the winner of that contest in June.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B8 of the New York edition with the headline: New Candidate and Palace Intrigue Shake Up Election for U.S. Soccer Presidency. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe